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Celebrating the Unpopular ArtsTue, 20 Nov 2018 00:21:11 +0000hourly1Comment on Questions for the Defence by buttlerhttp://atomicjunkshop.com/questions-for-the-defence/#comment-5738
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:21:11 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15027#comment-5738As for Devil-Slayer, aside from his cloak moving around like a living thing, your guess is as good as mine. Even as an avid Defenders fan from beginning to end, I never could get into that character.
]]>Comment on Questions for the Defence by frasershermanhttp://atomicjunkshop.com/questions-for-the-defence/#comment-5737
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:05:58 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15027#comment-5737The non-team aspect, at the time, didn’t mean they were unstable, just informal. No charter. No obligation to show up for meetings or fight scenes, just a choice that yes, this menace was worth dealing with. After Valkyrie moved, the team began bonding more into a unit but when she announces her intention to join, Subby tells her that’s impossible — it’s not like they have a membership application process or anything.
]]>Comment on Questions for the Defence by buttlerhttp://atomicjunkshop.com/questions-for-the-defence/#comment-5736
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:04:45 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15027#comment-5736The Non-Team thing: The Defenders is just whoever happens to be crashing at Dr. Strange’s house that week. It’s just that some stayed there longer than others.

That may sound like a joke, but it’s not. The Avengers had bylaws and shit, the FF is a family, the X-Men is a school, and the Defenders is just a bunch of heroes hanging out.

Break-Up: To set up the New Defenders, an actual team organized by Beast with only a couple of the old members (Valkyrie and Gargoyle) joined by Angel, Iceman and Moondragon, and an actual retitle for the series, starting in the next issue.

]]>Comment on R.I.P. William Goldman by Le Messorhttp://atomicjunkshop.com/r-i-p-william-goldman/#comment-5735
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 22:39:12 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15349#comment-5735I agree with you, Greg B – while the writer is important, they aren’t what finally makes or breaks the final product. (Unless that’s a novel.)
]]>Comment on R.I.P. William Goldman by Greg Burgashttp://atomicjunkshop.com/r-i-p-william-goldman/#comment-5734
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 04:59:11 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15349#comment-5734We’re going to have to agree to disagree to a certain extent here, because while yes, you can probably find more good movies by looking at the writers, I don’t think the disparity is as big as you think. Directors and actors can turn a bad screenplay into great stuff, just as writers can overcome bad directing.

In comics, Claremont always seems a bit better when he’s working with great artists. Alan Moore’s Miracleman issues drawn by Chuck Austen are brutal, even though we can see the words and know that they’re good ones. The art drags it down. That happens a lot in collaborative art.

Just look at All the President’s Men. A very big reason why that works is because of Redford and Hoffman and the direction – the writing isn’t particularly special. It’s fine, but not as good as Goldman could be (The Princess Bride, since that’s so famous, has absolutely stellar script). But that’s why we probably need to agree to disagree, as you probably disagree with me about that! 🙂

]]>Comment on R.I.P. William Goldman by Mark.Rouleauhttp://atomicjunkshop.com/r-i-p-william-goldman/#comment-5733
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 01:21:22 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15349#comment-5733Although I found a lot of his books frustrating– too many twists”= that were the result of deliberately withholding information that didn’t need to be withheld, one of my favorite books by him is The Silent Gondoliers. It’s an S. Morgenstern book (with a wonderful forward by Morgenstern himself, in which he explains that the Princess Bride’s report of his death was in error: “I am old, but alive. Perhaps, as you age, you will find the two are not mutually exclusive.”

It is a slight book, and therefore overlooked, but it has a big heart, a lovely message, and the trademark Goldman/Morgenstern wit.

]]>Comment on R.I.P. William Goldman by Edo Bosnarhttp://atomicjunkshop.com/r-i-p-william-goldman/#comment-5732
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 00:01:04 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15349#comment-5732Yeah, Magic is a good movie, although it creeped me out something awful.
Goldman, though, was pretty damn awesome. I always thought of him as a screenwriter first, although as I was looking over his biography after news of his death was announced, I was pretty surprised to see how many novels he had written – and then adapted into movies. Like I said, he was pretty awesome.
]]>Comment on R.I.P. William Goldman by Greg Hatcherhttp://atomicjunkshop.com/r-i-p-william-goldman/#comment-5731
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 00:00:46 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15349#comment-5731I don’t think it’s a conundrum at all. There are at least a dozen other actors who could have done as good or better than Cary Elwes in THE PRINCESS BRIDE; I doubt if there’s anyone else who could have adapted Goldman’s book as well. “Making something work” is not the same thing as greatness.

Likewise, I’ve never felt great art could save a badly-written comic, though I’ve adored many comics that were wonderfully-written with just so-so art.

Basically what you are arguing for is what I always think of as “the Tim Burton defense,” which I didn’t buy into for Batman 1989 or The Nightmare Before Christmas or any of the other times someone’s offered it when I said his movies were empty and stupid. The ones that work at all have the skeleton of a good script that he didn’t completely destroy. And so on. I guess mileage varies on this one, but I bet I find more good movies looking at writers than other folks do looking at directors.

]]>Comment on R.I.P. William Goldman by frasershermanhttp://atomicjunkshop.com/r-i-p-william-goldman/#comment-5730
Sun, 18 Nov 2018 19:46:12 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15349#comment-5730Seconding your recommendation for Magic. It works even though psycho ventriloquist is an old, old shtick.
]]>Comment on R.I.P. William Goldman by Greg Burgashttp://atomicjunkshop.com/r-i-p-william-goldman/#comment-5729
Sun, 18 Nov 2018 19:31:48 +0000http://atomicjunkshop.com/?p=15349#comment-5729All the President’s Men is waaaaaay overrated

Good movies are tough to parse, because everyone knows good or even great movies where the writing wasn’t that good, but the actors made it work. Or the directing. I get what that advice is trying to say, but it’s not necessarily true. Heck, even comics operate that way. Solitary pursuits, like novel writing, are different, but in collaborations, anything can make it great. Cary Elwes, who’s not a particularly great actor, is perfectly cast in The Princess Bride. So while the screenplay is super, could another actor have sold the lines as well as he did? It’s a conundrum.

Goldman was terrific, though. The coolest thing about him was that he refused to be pigeonholed, and he was good at so many different genres. Very impressive.